The Memorials at New Dangun (Dan-goon)

Prompt: How do people honor and grieve their dead in your world? In ancient Shilla and subsequently Josun, the people had specific rituals for memorializing the dead. When the loved one initially dies, because the community that eventually moved to Karanya was largely rural and agrarian, they followed a system of "everyone descended from your fourth paternal grandfather is connected." You plant together, harvest together, celebrate together, and eventually help fund funerals together, because the whole process is extensive.  Bodies are cremated. Although the Reman empire had a major, direct reason to view the water as the mightiest of elements and attribute their god to it - and subsequently, the Church of the Flame in its various forms countered that with raising the deities associated with fire and light to top status - they weren't the only ones. In Altaia as with other places, sending their dead to the next life accompanied by at least a light, if not a full proper cremation, is essential. So, the Josunese cremate their dead, have sacred burial mounds - which had to be "upgraded" to fully buried under flat earth with a shrine structure on top once the Tang dynasty had its influence on the area. The shrines got more and more modest after a resurrected empress kick started the Luan dynasty, basically enslaved Josun at the urging of a nine-tailed fox, and the people could not afford to make lavish burial shrines as much.  Fast forward slightly to the village of Dangun, and its members migrating under the cover of a solar eclipse in 4089 to Butunia, a small village (at the time) in the then-duchy of Karanya. Elders who didn't make the journey, they decided, needed a proper traditional burial, so they come up with a collaborative idea for new shrines. The burial mounds were brought back, as were the offering of incense and food on memorial days, name days, the death anniversaries, and such. Because the Karanyans, Jews, and Josunese have conflicting naming taboos, they agreed to the closest compromise, which is that babies will get recorded as being born under the name of a close living elder or a new name, but would be allowed to get names associated with saints and dead people after their seventh birthday (viewed historically as "yay, my kid survived the threat of the infant mortality rate!"). The location of the burial places of the first elders is called New Dangun, which does have an order of individuals both lay and religious caring for it on non-special days.

Primary Related Location

New Dangun

Important Locations

• Buntunia
• Dangun -- Josun